James Cotton tribute a four-hour festival

jaymiller

Friday

Dec 7, 2018 at 5:52 AM

The “All Star Tribute to Blues Legend James 'Superharp' Cotton” on Thursday night at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River turned out to be a nearly four hour festival of the harmonica-tinged rockin' blues the music icon favored. How do you sum it up, or count the highlights? Was it Rick Estrin's […]

The “All Star Tribute to Blues Legend James 'Superharp' Cotton” on Thursday night at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River turned out to be a nearly four hour festival of the harmonica-tinged rockin' blues the music icon favored.

How do you sum it up, or count the highlights? Was it Rick Estrin's jaw-dropping harmonica solo with no hands and the instrument stuck length-wise in his mouth? Was it the room-filling verve and palpable joy of the husband-wife duo of Rishell and Raines? Was it the Louisiana spice Kenny Neal added to the show, or the seductive vamping of Christine Ohlman, from the Saturday Night Live band? Was it the wit and savoir faire of Jerry Portnoy, a veteran of the Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton bands, and his ode to credit cards? How about Bob Margolin, re-creating that Muddy Waters growl as well as anyone ever has, and adding jolting guitar? Maybe it was the obvious glee with which Paul Oscher gave himself an extra song because he just felt so good? How can you forget Curtis Salgado's blues harp solo and its brilliant contrasts? Quite possibly it was the way regional veterans like James Montgomery and his band, Cheryl Arena, and Darrell Nulisch proved yet again they are as talented and electrifying as any blues players on the planet.

But the massive show and all its many special guest performers were only a precursor to a documentary that is in the works about Cotton, who died, at 81, in March of 2017. Thursday's show was produced by The Reel Blues Fest organization, the non-profit that stages annual shows to benefit blues musicians in need, with New England's James Montgomery a driving force.

This concert, which was also filmed by the Northern Light Production team that is making the documentary, was designed to provide some support for the film. But it was also meant to bring some of the major figures in blues, and specifically blues harmonica players Cotton had mentored, together for a celebration of Cotton's life, as a climactic conclusion to the film. To that end, most of the musicians had been in Fall River for the past couple days, rehearsing and jamming and sharing their stories with the filmmakers.

Like Cotton's widow, Jacklyn Hairston, noted, it was worth pointing out the generations represented, from guys like Portnoy, who admitted he'd just turned 75, to Sacramento phenom Rowland, just 25. But what they all had in common was a friendship and usually mentoring relationship with Cotton.

Cotton, who released something on the order of 29 albums as a bandleader, was born in Tunica, Mississippi, and raised by an uncle. By about age nine, he had met and begun playing with harmonica titan Sonny Boy Williamson II, although the folk legend that he was adopted by the latter, as someone repeated last night, was not really true. Young Cotton ended up playing around the Memphis area in bands with Howlin' Wolf in the 1950s. One night a tall stranger, who turned out to be Muddy Waters, recruited him for his road band, since Junior Wells had taken off. Cotton would achieve national fame while playing with the Waters band from 1955-65, although the record company still used Little Walter on Waters' records until '58.

Going out with his own band after '66, Cotton opened a tour with Janis Joplin, and woukld go on to play with a litany of music greats, including many in rock 'n' roll, from Santana to the Grateful Dead. Nominated for a couple of Grammys in the 1980s, Cotton finally won in 1996 for his “Deep in the Blues” album. Along the way he took home ten Blues Music Awards, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006. Battling throat cancer from the mid-90s on, Cotton would use vocalists in his bands, and Ben Harper sang with him when they performed in 2008 at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's induction of Little Walter. Cotton picked up another Grammy nomination in 2013 for his “Cottonmouth Man” album on Alligator Records, a collection of autobiographical songs that featured guest singers like Delbert McClinton and Gregg Allman.

For area fans the night was a reminder that Cotton headlined one of the last City of Presidents Blues Festivals, staged by Joe Hajjar and the Yard Rock at Memorial Stadium. Hajjar was on hand last night, and saluted from the stage by blues dj/host Holly Harris. The festival Cotton headlined was in 1999, Hajjar told us, and also included the late Cambridge pianist David Maxwell, and guitarist Jimmy Vivino, best known for his role in the band for the Conan O'Brien Show.

“We were going to arrange a hotel for Cotton, but he ended up going back to Cambridge with David Maxwell–they were old friends,” said Hajjar. “After that festival we were able to donate $5000 to the fund for the new library in Quincy, so it was an event we were all very proud of putting on.”

James Cotton, hard-blowing harmonica master of the blues, dies at 81

A bit more recently, we caught Cotton, with Montgomery in 2008 at the private party for media celebrating the launch of Showcase Live in Foxboro, and our story noted that the Cotton and Montgomery jam was so infectious, even the very dignified executive Shari Redstone was out dancing up a storm to the blues 'n' boogie.

Like a lot of festivals, no matter how glittery the cast, this one went on a bit too long. The final everybody-onstage jam was accompanied by dozens of fans heading for the exits. Some of the introductions were too verbose, and transitions were often clumsy. It's possible some fans got a surfeit of harmonica solos last night. But all of those flaws don't erase the fact that there were some indelible moments. And the empty chair onstage, signifying Cotton's spirit, was a nice touch.

An early highlight was Rishell and Raines' “Got to Fly,” where the married duo's virtuosity was only surpassed by their passion for the music, and Raines' harmonica tones were magnificient. Oscher, who also played with Waters, was superb with guitar and blues harp, especially on a note-perfect take on Waters' “Honeybee.” The crowd of about 450 fans didn't mind a bit when he awarded himself a third song, the wailing blues “The Shape I'm In.”

Margolin's basso profundo vocals and slide guitar were riveting on “One More Mile,” but his work on Waters' “Mannish Boy,” with Kyle Rowland adding the harmonica, was really haunting, as he captured that half-sensual/half foreboding Waters tone in a stunning way. Kenny Neal noted the'd never played with Cotton, but his brother Noel Neal had been Cotton's bassist for 35 years, and died just four months after Cotton. Neal's medley of “Down the Road I Go” and “Let It Roll” turned the venue into a Louisiana style clap and singalong revival.

Cheryl Arena was a real standout, with dazzling harp and vocals on Sonny Boy Williamson's “Help Me,” and then a blazing instrumental romp with Cotton band guitarist Rico McFarland as her foil. Jerry Portnoy, looking dapper and cool as usual, noted that he had never picked cotton and couldn't write a blues song about that, but he did have firsthand knowledge of an issue he did write about. His slow-talking blues “Charge It” was a hilarious take on credit cards and the trouble they bring, and then he did a lovely midtempo instrumental with the Cotton band, showing his mastery of melody and tone.

Rick Estrin grabbed Portnoy before he left the stage and pointed out the two had been buddies for fifty years, having met in some San Francisco record store in 1968 or '69, and boned over their love of music and harmonicas. Estrin's toe-tapping “Getting Out of Town” was a jaunty tune that showcased his own skills at the blues harp. But it was the duo number he did with acoustic bassist Marty Ballou that was remarkable, on the comic number about multiple girlfriends, “Too Close Together.” As his solo heated up, Estrin inserted the harmonica the long way in his mouth and pulled his hands away, playing an incredible–and incredibly melodic solo–as the audience gasped. “I've never seen that before,” a clearly astonished Montgomery said at the song's end.

Many of Cotton's later dates in New England featured Texas native Nulisch, who now calls the North Shore home. Nulisch sang and played “Blow Wind Blow” and “Who's Loving You Tonight” with the Cotton band and it was obvious their chemistry is topnotch. Mark Hummel joined the Cotton band for a raucous run through “Rocket 88.”

James Montgomery and his band–including Plymouth's David Hull on bass–delivered the rockin' blues “I Can't Take It,” which suggested Montgomery's new music is taking a J.Geils band type direction. Their “Good Time Charlie” worked off an Otis Redding-style rhythmic hook to good effect, and Montgomery's smooth vocals were enhanced by his muscular harmonica playing. Young Sacramento kid Kyle Rowland was impressive on the steamy “Crying Shame,” and did a most creditable job on Cotton's 1954 relic “Straighten Up.”

Curtis Salgado, a big favorite in these parts for his mid-1980s stint in Roomful of Blues, and his recent string of excellent soul-blues albums, did a spot-on take of Willie Dixon's classic “I'm Ready.” Salgado's rendition of Cotton's “She's Murder in the First Degree” came as a rapid shuffle, with a harmonica solo that seemed to have its own bass line playing a counter melody, in another head-spinning moment. “James Cotton meant so much to any of us playing this instrument,” said Salgado, “We all wanted to be just like him, singing, playing, and entertaining.”

Hummel returned for the midtempo “Love me or Leave Me” as 11 p.m. came and went. Christine Ohlman, from the SNL band and her own Rebel Montez, came out in a black blody suit with gold lame' patterns, and a long sparkly robe, and sang a vampy, campy, delightfully over the top “Fever,” with Arena providing the sizzling harmonica. The two women joined forces and vocals for a rowdy charge through “Sugar Sweet.” Hummel returned with the Montgomery band behind him for the grand finale, a gloriously evocative version of Cotton's signature instrumental, “The Creeper.”

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